Knicks destroyed by Heat in Game 1

It was Woodson’s fifth straight playoff loss after his Hawks got swept by Orlando two years ago in the second round. Two of those Atlanta losses were by 30 points.

James went on a rampage, finished with 23 points in the half, making 6 of 7 buckets, was 11 of 14 from the free-throw line. In contrast, Anthony started 0 for 7 and didn’t make his first field goal until late in the second quarter

The Knicks fell apart midway through the second period. Chandler threw the ball away as James intercepted the backcourt pass to J.R. Smith. Smith took exception and yanked James down to the court, picking up a foul but avoiding a flagrant. James hit both free throws.

"It's a bad feeling, but we are not going to get down on ourselves. It's our turn to make adjustments," Anthony said.

Chandler then committed two more offensive fouls, off-the-ball infractions against James, including one that nearly got him ejected and had James shaken up. Chandler notched seven turnovers in the half, four offensive fouls and was scoreless.

On the dangerous one, Chandler tried to set a pick on James but instead wound up knocking him from behind, sending James either flopping or flying. James looked like he got a stinger on the play as he grabbed his neck for several moments, limping around in pain, with 1:34 left in the half. The ruling on the court was a flagrant 2 and ejection but after a video review, it was reduced to a flagrant 1.

Chandler came out with four fouls. James hit both free throws, then nailed a 20-footer and got fouled by Smith. He made the free throw and the Heat were up 19 points 50-31.

The Knicks lost their cool, committed a shot-clock violation and James hit another jumper with 48 seconds left in the half. Anthony threw the ball away, James intercepted and scored on a layup with 3.3 seconds left to give the Heat a 54-31 lead at halftime.

It was a chippy first quarter with Stoudemire and Haslem getting double technical fouls after jawing at each other after the Knicks forward leveled a hard foul. Stoudemire also laid a hard foul on James, wrapping him up on a drive.

"The game got out of hand a little for us," Stoudemire said.

The Heat got its payback when struggling Anthony got hammered on a fastbreak drive by defensive ace Shane Battier, hitting the floor hard. Baron Davis came rushing over and bumped into Battier. It was on.

Miami led 24-18 after one, with the Knicks shooting an anemic 28.6 percent (6 of 21) led by Anthony, who had one airball runner when Mike Miller defended him in a drive. Anthony scored all four of his points from the free-throw line. But he was active on defense and had five first-quarter boards.

Davis had a strong first quarter with 10 points, an opening-minute 3-pointer, a hard drive down the lane for a stuff and a fastbreak dunk off a turnover he created.

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